History of Walworth county, Wisconsin, Volume I, Part 24

Author: Beckwith, Albert C. (Albert Clayton), 1836-1915
Publication date: 1912
Publisher: Indianapolis, Bowen
Number of Pages: 792


USA > Wisconsin > Walworth County > History of Walworth county, Wisconsin, Volume I > Part 24


Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).


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Newton King 1859


Joseph W. Church 1861


Henry B. Clark 1863-4


Sidney A. Tullar 1865-7


Washington Sidney Keats


1886-84. 94-7


Charles E. Altenberg


1907-8


Joseph Henry Heimbauch __ 1909-12


TOWN TREASURERS.


Jacob Burgit. 1843-5. 48


Henry B. Clark 1846, 49


Joseph Edwards 1847


Seymour Brooks 1850


George Edwards 1851


Emery Thayer 1852


Lucius S. Moody 1853-4


Thomas Burgit 1855 1


William H. Meadows


1877


Thomas Russell 1856, '61


James Monaghan


1878-93


Robert M. Lacy


1894. '96-7


Harry Dickerman -1895


Pitt M. Clark 1 1


1


1 1859


Matthew Coleman 2 I


1860


George Bentley 1862


Richard Brownlee, Jr.


1902-6


Daniel Speight


1907-9


John Speight


1910-12


JUSTICES OF THE PEACE.


Alender O. Babcock 1861-5


Seymour Brooks 1860-6.


78-84. 87-9


Thomas M. Burns 1896-7 James Child 1866-7


Lawrence Clancy 1 888-9


James M. Crosswait


1907-8


William M. Daniels


1 898-9


Charles Fraser


1873-81, '84-6


Frank L. Fraser 1881-3. 93


Simeon K. Graves


1886


Edwin R. Hicks 1897


Washington S. Keats __ 1866. 68-84 Louis H. Krosch. 1891


James D. Merrill


1867-0


William Miller


1859-73


Riley A. Spencer


1859


Alva Stebbins


1887


1


1


1


Elisha Stillman


I


1860-4


Simpson Dartt


1 1863


Simeon K. Graves 1893


Charles H. Zinn 1898-1900


Charles F. Hunter


1901-02, '04


C. Elmer Himebauch


1903


John Uhrlettig.


1905-6


William Goodrich Keats __ 1885, '92


William Goodrich Keats __ 1864. '69. 73-4


Charles M. Ilillard 1865


John W. Stoney 1866


Harvey Ambler 1867.'70


George H. Smith 1871-2, '75


Washington Sidney Keats


1 876


Joseph W. Church I 1857 1 1 1 1


James Palmer 858 1 1


Thomas W. O'Connor


1898-1900


Arthur Dickerman


- 190I


Enos H. Stone I 1866-72


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WALWORTH COUNTY, WISCONSIN.


Sidney B. Tullar 1860, '62, David P. Webster 1872-8


'64-6, '71-96 Perry Welch 1896-7, 1906-7


John Uhrlettig 1900-' --


John J. White 1864


There are five school districts wholly within the town, a joint district with Troy and one with Waterford. The postoffice at Lake Beulah, of the fourth class, has two rural delivery routes.


VILLAGE OF EAST TROY.


Jacob Burgit and Austin McCracken laid out their village in 1847. 011 each side of the territorial road from Milwaukee to Janesville, making Main street of that part of the highway lying within village limits. Running from its eastern beginning nearly southwest by westerly (making an angle of 581/2° with the meridian line ), this street makes an angle of 157º at its Church street crossing and leaves the western limit at an angle of 812° with an east and west line. This one irregularity lends a slightly metropolitan aspect to the village plat, the other streets lying in the direction of section lines. The site was well chosen. affording short drainage lines, and the soil permitting dry cellars of any desired depth. Lots were sold on easiest terms to buyers, and as there were already a few dwellings and stores. the village had a healthy and hopeful infancy.


In the first period of railway building one line from the lake to the river passed by ten miles northward and another about as far southward, and the Milwaukee & Beloit Company, in 1857. brought but delusive hope to villagers. Several years later a line from Chicago crossed the township five miles cast- ward, and the branch line from Elkhorn to Eagle is nearly as far westward. East Troy for more than forty years lay in a rail-less area. The village worked. hoped, waited, and respected itself, and at last rejoined the long lost world in 1907 by way of an electric line to Milwaukee. In spite of this long want of railway connection the village was always fair in the eyes of visitors, and its quickened prosperity has added something to its earlier attractions.


William Burgit built a grist-mill in 1844. near the village. In 1848 he sold it to George M. Cousins, Peter A. Cramer and Gideon Garrett. The next year Mr. Cousins left the firm and the mill was sold back to Mr. Burgit, from whom it passed in 1853 to Henry B. Evans. Edward H. Ball and John W. Denison bought it at a sheriff's sale in 1862, and sold it in 1863 to Byron Brown. William D. Smith bought it in 1866. Jonas 11. and William II. Fox


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WALWORTH COUNTY, WISCONSIN.


in 1869, Charles F. Zartrow in 1870. Charles A. Schmidt in 1876. No further change of ownership is found in record. The mill is yet in operation for local custom.


CIIURCHES.


Ten members constituted a Baptist society, October 5. 1842. These were Elvira. Irene and William Duncan, Mrs. Elizabeth Ann (Wheeler ) Edwards, Gaylord and Nancy Graves. Horace Smith, Eliza Sperry, Gilbert and Mary Waters. The line of pastors was Alva Burgess 1842, James Delaney 1845. Milo B. Tremain, James Squier. George W. Gates, Peter Conrad. Orra Martin (temporary ). Amos Weaver 1860. Daniel Dye 1861. E. L. Scofield 1865. C. J. B. Jackson 1868, James Delaney 1869, W. A. Rupert 1879-82, Wilbur W. Conner 1883, David P. Phillips 1886. There were intervals, short and long, during which the pulpit was supplied from neighboring churches, or was vacant. Mr. Phillips died July 5. 1886, and but occasional service was held until Rev. David L. Holbrook came on April 4. 1898, and with that day closed the record of this once strong church, so reduced by deaths and removals. Soon after this the building became a hall for the Modern Woodmen. In 1905 the remaining members received formal letters of dismissal.


Before 1848 Rev. Thomas Morrissey and others of the Catholic faith came from Burlington, Lake Geneva, and Waterford to hold service at private houses. In that year Vicar-General Kundig ministered similarly, and after him Rev. Matthias Gernbauer. In 1854 a church was built at a cost of twelve hundred dollars. In 1855 Rev. Sebastian Seif became, for a few months. the first resident priest of St. Peter's. After him was Michael Haider 1855, Thomas Keenan 1857, James Stehle 1859. Lawrence N. Kenney 1860, George L. Willard 1864, John Casey 1866, E. A. Graves 1868, H. F. Fairbank 1869. Thomas Bergen 1870, James Fitzgibbon 1876. J. Eugene Allen 1881. Hugo Victor 1884, John 11. Keller 1887. Jolin T. O'Leary 1893. Charles Schmid 1896. John Joseph Weinhoff in the same year and until now. Of these, the dates of birth and death are shown for Father Bergen 1844-79. Fitzgibbon 1827-97, Haider 1820-85, Keenan 1829-80. Kenney 1836-70. Kundig 1805-79. Willard 1836-80. In 1870 a substantial church was built at cost of sixteen thousand dollars, and a school house in 1889 at cost of four thousand dollars. The somewhat variable membership is now about one hundred twenty families. St. Peter's cemetery, laid out at a well-chosen point in section 17, nearly two miles from the village, was for many years the resting place of the Catholic dead of other towns, even as far away as Elkhorn.


.


.


281


WALWORTH COUNTY, WISCONSIN.


Mrs. Mary ( Gardner ) Burgit. Elizabeth Chafin, Stillman and Caroline Dewey, Amasa, Araby, and Clarissa A. Hotchkiss, William Trumbull. James WV. and Rebecca A. Vail. William and Elizabeth Weed met at Mr. Vail's, June 22. 1839. to form a Presbyterian society. (Within two years Mr. Hotchkiss died and Miss Clarissa had become Mrs. Trumbull.) A church was built in 1849. In 1855 the society became Congregational. and in 1856 began to build a new church. This work was suspended from 1857 to 1871 and finished in 1872. Its clergy list is: Lemuel Hall 1839. David A. Sherman 1841, Cyrus E. Rosenkrans 1845. Charles Morgan 1852, Avelyn Sedgwick 1858. Miles Doolittle 1859. Charles Morgan 1860. Hanford Fowle 1874. Asher W. Curtis 1878. Josiah Beardsley 1881. Augustus J. Hayner 1888. George Mackey Whyte 1895. Thomas W. Barbour 1897. S. Wilbur Bloom 1901. Joseph Herbert 1902. Walter C. Graf 1904. Albert E. Pauly (unordained ) 1908. Isaac B. Traey 1910. A parsonage is part of the church property.


In 1874 fifteen families organized as St. John's Evangelical Lutheran society. In 1881 it was reorganized as St. Paul's and the society bought the old Congregational building. Until 1894 the pulpit was supplied from the church at Elkhorn. In that year Rev. Gustav Schmidt became resident pastor. and was yet there in February. 1912. In 1903 a brick church was built at cost of eight thousand dollars, and a parsonage has been supplied.


Early in 1838 Rev. Salmon Stebbins held the quarterly meeting for the Aztalan mission at Daniel P. Griffin's house and there organized the Methodist society of East Troy, with the Griffin families. Benjamin Jennings. Mrs. Austin MeCracken, John S. and Mariette ( Bivins) Spoor as members. Mrs. Rebecca \. Vail and Mrs. Elizabeth Weed, Presbyterians, joined temporarily. A log house served for a meeting place until early in 1840 when a framed building took its place and for the next ten years was used more or less by other societies as well.


The several pastors have been in nearly the following order: Samuel Pillsbury 1839. Jesse Halstead. James P. Flanders, James McKean. D. Worthington. Leonard F. Moulthrop. William Hanson. Henry Whitehead. Nathaniel Swift. M. L. Read, John J. Gallup. J. Bean. M. Butler, Jonathan M. Snow. Joseph C. Dana. William M. Osborn. Harrison V. Train. William F. Delap. Iliram II. Hersey. S. Watts, Russell P. Lawton. John G. Pingree. Thomas Wilcox. Thomas C. Wilson, Rufus Cooley 1864. Isaac Searles 1867. W. W. Painter 1869, Lafayette F. Cole 1873. Thomas Peep. Samuel Rey- nolds. J. D. Wilson. A. Porter. Wallace J. Olmstead 1880. Samuel C. Thomas 1881. Rossiter C. Parsons 1882. Robert Davidson 18844. Thomas Potter 1886.


282


WALWORTHI COUNTY, WISCONSIN.


William Moyle 1890, John Albert Collinge 1895, John M. Woodward 1901, William Dawson 1903, Alpheus W. Triggs 1908, Amos L. Tucker 1910.


Mrs. Austin McCracken and Artemisia McLeod, her sister, Mrs. Rebecca A. Vail, and other pious women began their Sunday school work in 1838, with John S. Spoor as superintendent. Until the formation of church societies this work was non-sectarian.


Mrs. Vail opened a boarding school for girls at her house, in 1839, joining religious to secular instructions. She was excellently qualified for this work and she is said to have drawn pupils from as far away as Milwaukee. She was also a pioneer teacher at Geneva.


Louisa Augier (who in 1842 became Mrs. Charles Taylor) began as a public school teacher in 1839, for some years in the chapel building. A schoolhouse was built in 1846, and about 1854 a new one took its place. This, with extensions of house and grounds, is worthy of the village. The value of the school property, including four acres of ground, may be about fifteen thousand dollars. This school has for many years done good high school work, and it now employs seven teachers.


In 1839 S. Buel Edwards built his blacksmith shop opposite a corner of the park, so well framed and so large that with a little outward improvement and much inner alteration and adjustment it is now a sightly and convenient town hall and clerk's office, with an occasionally useful calaboose in its rear.


Oak Ridge, a scant mile from the village, became in 1876 the care of an organized cemetery association. It is well laid out and kept in order, and has become the resting place of Hon. John F. Potter and most of his family. and of many another early settler. St. Peter's lies little more than a half-mile away.


NEWSPAPERS.


Francis D. Craig began in August, 1879, to publish the East Troy Gazette, sold it about a year later, bought it again in 1881 and discontinued it about 1882. He also published monthly the American Merino in the interest of sheep breeders of East Troy. Caldwell's Prairie, and adjacent towns of three counties. In 1885 and 1886 Wilbur G. Weeks published experimentally an East Troy edition of the Delavan Republican, named the Star, with Simeon K. Graves and Washington S. Keats in turn as local editors. In 1893 Samnel K. Adams published the East Troy News and sold it in 1896 to Oscar R. Kurzrok, who has made it permanent. His equipment, which includes a power-press, is modern and good, and his newspaper and his job work prove him a real printer. Politically the Newes is independent, but is not a "common scold."


283


WALWORTH COUNTY, WISCONSIN.


VILLAGE ORGANIZATION.


At a special election, May 26, 1900, by a vote of one hundred and five to fifty-three, the village decided to organize its government agreeable to the general. statutes. Officers were chosen June 22d: Trustees, Richard Brown- lee, Alva Lumsden, Owen H. Marshall. Anthony Noblet, Charles W. Smith, Oscar F. Winne ; marshal, Edwin R. Hicks; street commissioner, Nathan J. Randolph ; health officer, Dr. Orlo S. Canright.


Presidents : August Wilmer 1900-3. Lawrence Clancy 1904-5, Thomas W. O'Connor 1906-9, Paul Schwartz 1910-12.


Clerks: Oscar R. Kurzrok 1900, Fred H. Coburn 1901-3. Leonard E. Rice 1904-7. Washington S. Keats 1908-11, Oscar R. Kurzrok 1912.


Treasurers : Leonard E. Rice 1900-1, Edward Rohleder 1902-6. Sey- mour E. Marshall 1907, Walter C. Dickerman 1908-10, John Weldon 1911, Henry Gaskell 1912.


Assessors: William G. Keats 1900-1, Nathan J. Randolph 1902-12.


Members of county board of supervisors: Washington S. Keats 1900. Adam C. Deist 1901-2, Lawrence Clancy 1903, Charles H. Zinn 1904-7. Lawrence Clancy 1908-12.


POSTOFFICE.


It is told that the first postoffice in the township was established in 1839, at the house of Henry Powers, in section 3, with John F. Potter as postmaster. In 1841 the office was transferred to Sewall Smith's store, at the village. About 1844 it was discontinued for a short time and restored, still under Mr. Smith. Edward H. Ball was appointed in 1848. John D. Hawes 1853, Thomas Russell about 1854. Mr. Smith again in 1861. Henry B. Clark 1866, Joseph W. Church 1869. Perry O. Griste in the same year, Rudolph Haber- nicht 1894, Mr. Griste 1898, Edwin R. Hicks 1902, Benjamin F. Schwartz 1911. October 1, 1911, this postoffice was passed from the fourth to the third class, and the postmaster's salary became eleven hundred dollars.


PUBLIC HOUSES.


Austin MeCracken built his log house in 1836 and made it serviceable as an inn. Emery Thayer bought the place in 1842 and in 1845 built a house of two stories on the same site, and this is yet a part of the East Troy House. Other owners have been Timothy Mower 1855. Loren J. Edwards 1856. S. Buel Edwards 1862, Orson B. Morse 1864. Henry B. Clark 1868. In 1872


284


WALWORTH COUNTY, WISCONSIN.


Mr. Clark's son-in-law, Harold H. Rogers, became his partner and at his death. in 1875. Mr. Rogers was his successor. Later proprietors have been Oscar B. Rogers. J. Frank Brooks, and E. Louis Brooks, who now sits at the receipt of custom. Besides these are remembered, with very uncertain dates, as tenants if not owners, Austin Wright. Seymour Brooks, William Hare. Joseph H. Edwards, Alanson Beckwith, Charles W. Smith, and James F. Jude. Clark & Rogers bought an old church and joined it to the hotel. Thus, the East Troy House is a two-fold relie of the village infancy.


Samuel Bradley built a cobble-stone house of three stories. between 1846 and 1849. named it the Buena Vista House, and occupied it for a few years This property has changed ownership several times. Among its owners and occupants have been Daniel J. Kees about 1860, Richard Hotton. James H. Ilall. Wright J. Larkin, and Messrs. Primmer. Justin and Churchill severally. It is now no longer used as a public house.


BUSINESS ITEMS.


Sewall Smith built a store and displayed a stock of goods in 1841. Austin Wright began competition in 1842, and within a short time Cyril L. Oatman and ex-Sheriff Mallory, from Geneva, combined these two enterprises. Other early general dealers distinctly known were Alonzo Platt (once of Elkhorn ). Henry H. Austin with John D. Dorrance, and Joseph R. Stone with variable partnerships, as Peter S. Markham, Hiram J. Cowles, and Joseph H. Hurlbut. Later dealers have been Jonathan Bailey, E. K. Barker. Adam C. Deist. Perry O. Griste. Wilder M. Howard. George and William Meadows, Charles W. Smith, Hobart A. Tullar. August and Bernhardt Wilmer.


llenry H. Austin, John P. Chafin. William T. Donaldson, Alexander and Frank L. Fraser, Perry O. Griste, Walter C. Hlately, Harold H. Rogers. Charles W. and George H1. Smith organized the State Bank of East Troy, November 19. 1892, and began business on the following New Year's day. with Rogers as president. Griste vice-president, Chafin cashier. Mr. Rogers died March 23. 1897. and in December Mr. Griste became president and George Meadows vice-president. Edward B. Rohleder was then chosen assistant cashier. In September, 1911, Mr. Griste retired from the bank and Mr. Chafin became president. Mr. Rohleder vice-president ( and assistant cashier ), and Henry E. Henry, from Kewaskum, cashier. The capital of this bank is thirty thousand dollars.


October 25. 1911, the stockholders of the Farmers' and Merchants' State Bank chose directors and officers: James S. Brooks, John Brophy. James


285


WALWORTHI COUNTY, WISCONSIN.


and John B. Crosswaite. Albert Jude, James F. Jude ( president ). Dr. Timothy J. O'Leary (vice-president ), Matthew J. Powers (cashier), Frank J. Rice, Charles Taft, and Valentine Zimmerman, and named Leonard Martin as assistant cashier. In February, 1912, workmen were laying the deep concrete foundation walls of a new building for this bank.


Friday, December 13, 1907, the villagers saw the arrival from and return to Milwaukee of electric cars, and themselves restored to easy and frequent connection with that greater world which their parents and grand- parents had left seventy years before.


A village system of water-works began in 1908 to afford reasonable protection from fires, and bonds were issued to the amount of thirteen thou- sand five hundred dollars. \ well was bored six hundred ninety-one feet in depth, reaching water enough for present use, at the least; and pumping works with steel tower and tank provided. The water rises in the well within about twenty-one feet of the surface. The drill passed through ninety-two feet of drift. three feet of limestone, and thirty-six feet into St. Peter's sand- stone. In 1910 the population was 673.


CHAPTER XXV.


CITY OF ELKHORN.


John Starr Rockwell was in 1836 a clerk in the government's newly established land office at Milwaukee. He learned there, officially and extra- officially, something of use to himself and to his brother Le Grand, then in his twenty-fifth year, who had come from Butternuts, New York, with a fair amount of means, to look well about him for a suitable village site. The brothers, with Horace Coleman, formed a partnership for the settlement of a county seat. In February, 1837, Le Grand and Mr. Coleman left Milwaukee, but not in quest of mill-site, lakeside, or other special gift of nature to man. They knew by common report that good land could be found in nearly every section of southeastern Wisconsin, and the immediate object of their search was a township corner-stake. Though as yet unnamed and unorganized. Walworth county was already more than a bare possibility as to its position. form, and dimensions: for, men of many political and speculative devices gathered at Milwaukee in the earliest existence of the territory of Wisconsin.


These two speculative geometers found the embryo county's centre of gravity in a bit of bog, at the meeting-point of four townships. Then they returned for materials, tools, and supplies for settlement. Mr. Coleman's faith in the enterprise grew lukewarm and he withdrew from it, and soon appeared at Spring Prairie. Mr. Rockwell formed another partnership quite readily, and on February 27th was at the pivotal stake again. He came for himself and brother; Milo Edwin Bradley for his father, Daniel Edwin: Albert Ogden for Lewis John Higby, who afterward bought in section 5 of Richmond. At Spring Prairie they induced Hollis Latham, who had been there a few weeks, to go with them. The company pre-empted four quarter- sections and built a cabin in the Geneva quarter. Mr. Latham chose his home in the same quarter, while Rockwell and Ogden made theirs in the Delavan quarter. The company yielded its claim to the Sugar Creek quarter in 1839. when the county commissioners selected a quarter-section for the county's buildings.


It was thought that until it should be needed for county-seat and metro- politan uses the company's square mile, as a great dairy-farm. would soon bring fair returns for the money, work, and hope invested. In this these men were


287


WALWORTHI COUNTY, WISCONSIN.


too far-sighted by forty years : but their city is now at the centre of one of the leading dairying counties of the state. and is a shipping-point for a much larger area than the company's square mile. In May a framed house was built of Geneva-sawn oak, eighteen feet by thirty feet. one and one-half stories high. During court terms this became a boarding house, but not until Mr. Latham had married Daniel E. Bradley's daughter, Mrs. Lemira Lewis. The settlement of the proposed county-seat was in a special way confirmed at the new house by the birth of Le Grand Latham, January 4. 1839. But the young city had not been childless. Mrs. Lathani had a daughter of her first marriage. Elizabeth Ann Lewis ( 1828-1888), who in 1848 married Phineas C. ( 1824-1887), son of Andrew Gilbert and Calmy Butler. Henry. youngest of the large family of Daniel E. Bradley and Betsey Sturges, was a year or two older than his niece. Milo E. Bradley and wife Nancy had seven children, though not all of them as yet born. This family soon settled in section 1 of Geneva, and some years later moved to La Crosse county.


Colonel Phoenix, crossing the prairie southeast of the Rockwell settle- ment. had found a pair of antlers which he hung on a tree to mark a point in his trail between Spring Prairie and Delavan. This slight circumstance soon named the prairie, the village, and the northwestern quarter of the county. This extension of the name sometimes makes it difficult or impossible to determine whether persons named in other than land records were or were not of the village.


In 1838 Sheldon Walling ( 1795-1875) and wife, Anna Peets ( 1798- 1875). came from western New York to section 7 of Geneva. The next year Mr. Walling, having become sheriff. moved into the village, where he and his sons Fred and George went into retail business. The father was a tanner. In 1839 Edward Elderkin and Horatio S. Winsor came to practice law. Elderkin bought a farm in the south half of the Geneva section. In 1840 Moses Bartlett, William Coulson. John Hall, Henry H. Hartson. Hudson Van Brunt. and George Watson came, but not all of them to leave of themselves a clear memory. In 18441 Richard Beals ( 1781-1855) and son Isaac F. ( 1814-1891). George Gale. Phineas M. Johnson, Levi Lee, Zenas Ogden: in 1842. Booth B. Davis and James O. Eaton : in 1843 Adelaide C. Beardsley. Dexter Dewing and son George. Sanford and William O. Garfield. William E Gregory, Charles N. Meigs. Capt. George and Dr. George il. Young. were among the arrivals. Some of these men owned land in adjoining towns. Others of the earlier villagers were Philo Baird. Curtis Bellows. Lewis S. Bemis. Reuben R. Brown. Alexander S. Brown. Zophar Chittenden, Russell Crandall. John Cromley. Anthony Delap, Eli K. Frost, John Gillespie.


288


WALWORTH COUNTY, WISCONSIN.


Peter Golder, Noah Harriman, David Hartson, Horace N. Hay, Dr. Samuel W. Henderson, Edwin Hodges, George Humphrey, Samuel Mallory, John Matheson, Job O. Matteson, Orrin Maxham, Lot Mayo and sons Andrew and Samuel, Urban D. Meacham, Alonzo Platt. Davis Reed, Wyman Spooner, William L. Stowe, Levi Thomas, Samuel and James L. Tubbs, Dr. Eleazar and Francis A. Utter, Lucius Wilmot, Edward Winne.


Lewis Shepard Bemis ( 1819-1899). son of Allen Bemis and Edna Shepard, came from Niagara county, New York, with wife Olivia ( 1825- 1904), daughter of Dexter Dewing. About 1850 he became landlord of the Exchange Hotel, and after 1857 went into like business at Milwaukee.


Reuben R. Brown was for some years master of the Masonic lodge and was an instructor in the work of the lodge.


Zophar Chittenden ( 1823-1894) came from Ohio, a carpenter and joiner, and built several of the better houses of the time, in the village and for prosperous farmers. Ile left after 1857 and died at Kalamazoo.


John Cromley ( 1822-1899) was a master shoemaker. He made the overland trip to California and return, and his general usefulness and com- radelike quality shown in the expedition and at the mines were gratefully appreciated by his companions. At home, too, he was one of the truest and kindest of men.


Anthony Delap ( 1813-1896) was a blacksmith, with other capabilities. He built a good house, which he sold to Levi Thomas and then passed over to East Delavan neighborhood.


James O. Eaton married January 1, 1843, Mary Miranda Dwinnell, a sister of the pioneer-preacher-chronicler of Lafayette. He opened one of the earliest general stores in the village.


Sanford Garfield ( 1793-1872), son of Solomon, Jr., was a cousin of President Garfield's father. Ile married Clarissa Oakley ( 1795-1883). He was a shoemaker, and came here from Otsego by way of Chautauqua county.




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